Monsters Of Folk Reveal Secret Origins

Updated:

August 21, 2009 10:36 am

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One thing you can say about the Monsters of Folk — they’re quick with a joke. The indie-rock supergroup, comprised of Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, M. Ward and Jim James, seem to bring out each other’s goofy side. That was the case when we interviewed them, in a piece you can read in our upcoming issue. And that was definitely the case when they sat down with MTV (who we didn’t realize still cared about music).

“There actually was a Monsters of Folk before this Monsters of Folk, and we were really upset because they stole the name from us before we even knew each other. They were on tour in, like, 1997, and we didn’t start Monsters of Folk until 2003, but they shoulda known we were gonna get together,” says Jim James, who currently goes under the moniker Yim Yames. “So we threatened to sic our lawyers on them, and all of a sudden they decided to let us use the name. Which was really cool of them.”

Read the full article here.

The Monsters of Folk’s self-titled debut album drops September 22. Stream a few tracks here.